Though podcasts have been around for years, I took to listening to them regularly only at the start of the year when I was accumulating a lot of screen time be it on a mobile phone, laptop or a tablet. Podcasts presented itself as a good replacement to keep screens away for at least for some time each day.

So which podcasts do I listen to? Here is a first part where I share some popular podcasts which touch upon true life stories, anonymous discussions, fiction and more. This list in no specific order and there is a web link is provided so that you can try out the podcast online using CastBox App which I use on Android, but the same podcast will be available in any podcast app by searching based on the name.

The Moth: A very popular and well known podcast ‘The Moth’ lets people share real life stories some funny, some thought provoking and others saddening on stage for a live audience. New episodes are released weekly and each episode can be anywhere between 20 minutes to a hour.

Beautiful Anonymous: In this podcast, the host has a discussion with a anonymous caller. Considering that the caller is not revealed, the discussions happen on a variety of topics. The podcast is a true reflection of the kind of society we live in today where everyone loves to talk but there are not enough people who will listen. New episodes come out every week and are approximately 60 to 70 minutes in duration.

The Stoop Storytelling Series: Another podcast similar to The Moth where ordinary people come on stage and share stories. Though The Moth is more popular and has a larger reach that this podcast, I have found the stories covered in this podcast to be more interesting. Episodes are generally about 40 minutes to an hour long.

This American Life: Another very popular podcast which runs on a theme based approach, every week there are stories around a particular theme. This podcast has personally been a hit or a miss, sometimes the episode are very good and other times ordinary. But regardless a very good podcast to subscribe to. Episodes are of around a hour long generally.

I would have loved to include podcasts from India as well, but the Indian podcast scene is yet to develop and there are only one or two networks which do regular podcasts but none of them are on the theme of story telling.

Are there any similar podcast that you listen to but is not mentioned? If yes, do let me know so that I too can subscribe to them.

I recently purchased a MacBook Air and had to install Google Chrome to use Webex and Hangout calls. Post installation, each time I started/restarted my MacBook, I was greeted with a blank Google Chrome window. This functionality is great if Chrome is your primary browser but irritating if you primarily use Firefox like me and use Chrome for specific activities as needed.

After going through various forums, I finally arrived at the below steps which are simple and straight forward:
1. Goto System Preferences >> Users & Groups.
2. Click on the Login Items tab for your user name.
3. You will see an entry got Google Chrome, remove the entry by first selecting Google Chrome and then clicking on the – (hyphen/minus sign) at the bottom. Do not make the mistake which I did of clicking on the checkbox and expecting it to be removed, you need to click on the minus symbol at the bottom to stop it.

After more than a month of struggling with it, I was relieved to finally get rid of Chrome from popping up each time I started the MacBook Air. Yay!